Help: forming_parties

FORMING PARTIES
Partying in ZombieMUD is the often preferred way of getting experience or new
equipments. If the members of the party fit well together, a party can
accomplish a lot more together than its members could all on their own. Parties
are also able to cause party criticals in parties, which help a great deal.
Like anything else that has to do with human interaction, partying is a form
of an art and you will never run out of things to learn in how to efficiently
run parties, gather them and plan their courses. This helpfile exists to teach
newbies the basics of how to form parties in ZombieMUD. For more indepth info
on how to party, check our WWW-pages and the section "player created essays".
Basic things that are important to know about forming parties:
-It's worth it! Even if your party isn't that good, the way your characters'
better sides play together combined with the bonuses from party criticals
make it easily worth it. Furthermore, the more you try it out, the better
in it you become.
-Have someone who can tank! Any fighter type of a character would be good,
you can see them by typing "who hitter unidle". Hitpoints, dodge, parry,
resists and armour class are the type of stuff you should look for in a
tank.
-Have someone who can put protective spells and heal! A Paladin, an Abjurer,
or a Healer will do in newbie/midbie parties. Having an Abjurer with ward
of stone / steel or Paladin with Armour of God makes a great difference in
how big monsters can you fight.
-Have someone who can protect from stuns! At bigger monsters, you will want
to have either 'Iron will' or 'Stun resistance' spells handy. This is to
keep the tanking fighter type alive even should the monsters score stuns.
Psionicists, Abjurers, Healers and some Paladins possess these spells.
With smaller monsters, you can do without too.
-Use the 'who' command! Parties do sometimes come to you, but the best way
to guarantee having one, is to form it. Use the who command to find people
around your own level, in the right guilds. "who hitter min 20 max 50 unidle"
would show you all melee type classes between level 20 and 50, who are not
currently idle. "who Abjurer" would show all primary Abjurers in the game
and "who abjurer" would show you secondary and tertiary abjurers also. Use
this command to find the members you need. "who party" will show you all
parties currently created. Since this shows 1 member "solo parties" also,
it is useful to type "who party min:2" when you only see parties of 2 or
more people in them. "who lfg" will also print the players currently looking
for a party.
-Use the 'lfg' command! With the LFG command (short for Looking For Group)
you can set yourself as looking for either EQ or for XP groups. Other
players will then see you when they type 'who lfg'. Type 'help lfg' for
more information.
-Just ask them! Almost everyone prefers partying to solo once they have had
time to try it out. Do not worry that you do not know enough areas, or are
otherwise unexperienced. If you ask people around your own level, they will
not know any better either. It is more fun to learn together than to solo
in the area you already know.
-Read help party! It is a short helpfile that lists all commands on how to
form a party (pc <party name>), how to assign a leader, how to start auto-
following the leader, and so forth. Also ask the tank to type "sc party"
so he begins to report his hit points on the party channel.